Baby Was Acting Funny, Then Dad Realized What Someone Put In Her Apple Juice

By: Mackenzie Wright | December 8, 2018

When you take your child out to a restaurant, you expect the staff to follow rules, pay attention and serve you a safe and healthy meal. Unfortunately, there are always little problems that arise, but some mistakes are just plain careless. What one family went through in a Georgia restaurant shows total incompetence, but they shudder to think of how much worse things could have been.

Alexis Smith and her husband were out for the day and started to stop for lunch in a restaurant in Vinings, Georgia. The family sat down and ordered food and beverages. They asked for apple juice for their 18-month-old daughter, and the waiter offered to put it in a sippy cup.

The parents declined and said a regular glass would do. The child drank the juice as the parents enjoyed their meal. They had no idea that there had been a terrible mix-up until Mr. Smith stood up and got ready to leave. He took a sip of his daughter's leftover juice and was horrified.

It wasn't juice in the child's cup; it was alcohol. Smith said that his chest immediately began to burn from the sip. Alexis also tasted it and said it tasted like alcohol. The mom and dad called over a manager.

The manager of the restaurant was worried about a possible mix-up and went to check. Sure enough, it turns out that an alcoholic beverage was mislabeled. The wait staff had inadvertently served the toddler some hard liquor. The manager apologized and offered to pay for the family's meal, but the mother and father had bigger concerns at the time.

“I started crying at the restaurant,” said Alexis to 11Alive. “As a mom, it was very emotional. Alcohol is something serious.”

The Smiths rushed their daughter, Aaliyah, to the hospital. On the way there, and as they waited for the baby to be examined, they noticed she was acting strange. She was a little wobbly and seemed 'not her usual self'.

A test of the child's blood-alcohol level showed that it was almost .07. The legal limit in Georgia for an adult is .08, so for an 18-month-old that was alarmingly high.

Alexis says it could have been so much worse, though. They could have put the apple juice in the sippy cup. “She would have been sipping on alcohol all day and possibly died,” she said. “I’m just lucky that my daughter did not consume the whole cup because she probably would not be here now.”

Thankfully, doctors said Aaliyah is going to be fine and is not going to suffer any permanent damage from the alcohol. Most likely the tot went home and slept it off. Still, it’s any parent’s nightmare to think that your child might be handed what is essentially poison when you take her to a restaurant. It’s enough to make you want to start taste-testing all their food and drinks.